The Guanyin Corpse

A preview of my upcoming story! My next book will be "The Yin-Loving Bride." If you're interested, visit my profile and add it to your collection. Here's the blurb:

Yu Shu died, but somehow she was not dead.

She was sealed inside a statue of the Ten Directions, cut off from the light of day.

A hundred years passed in emptiness and endless loneliness. The cold, rough interior of the statue gradually filled her with boundless hatred. That hatred turned into an unceasing tide of resentment that shrouded Mount Xiayu all year round.

One night, a young bride came to the mountain to burn paper offerings and incense. She had come to pray for a child.

Yu Shu inhaled the incense and was displeased. She wasn't the Goddess of Fertility, but she wanted so badly to see the light of day again.

So she made a deal with the young bride.

*

Wen Zhen of Qingfeng Temple was a monk. A fake monk!

He had woken up in Qingfeng Temple a year ago, so naturally he assumed he was a monk, albeit a lay monk.

Every day he carried water and chopped wood, with no memory of his past.

Until a few villagers came to the temple and said that a young bride had suddenly hanged herself on Mount Xiayu.

Wen Zhen went to the mountain and dug a ferocious-looking statue out of the earth.

He tried to deliver it from suffering, but accidentally released the female ghost inside.

She was dead, but somehow not dead, neither human nor ghost, neither mortal nor immortal.

She wanted to kill him and eat his heart to increase her cultivation.

He wanted to save her, guide her back to the right path, and earn merit.

*

Yu Shu realized she couldn't kill the foolish monk, so she placed a curse on him: she would be his master, and he would be her servant.

Wen Zhen thought the curse didn't seem to affect him much, but he decided he had to follow her, keep an eye on her, and deliver her from suffering!

So he lowered his eyes and obediently called her, "Master."

The crescent moon is sharp, the red coffin sways. Gongs and drums summon the Yin Bride. Born of utmost yin, the Yin Bride is revered by the ghosts and gods of the Ten Directions.

Worship the roof beam, enter the hall of rebirth. The Yin Bride is led to the wedding bed. Yin Bride, Yin Bride, don't cry out. Lead me first into the hall of rebirth.

*

A revenge-seeking loli who thinks she's irredeemably wicked x a scheming monk who thinks he's saving all living beings.

--The blurb for this story--

"A Yun, I'm waiting for you.

Year after year...

The sun and moon turn, the mountains and rivers change.

The birch forests of Changbai Mountain have long been blanketed in snow, and the yellow earth of Jade Corpse Ridge has eaten away at my bones.

When will you come and take me home?"

*

"A modern Miao corpse-driver from western Hunan x an ancient general who died far from home"

Jiang Yun is the sole heir to the corpse-driving tradition of Mount Qidi in Shuinan, western Hunan. Three months ago, at a client's request, she went to Changbai Mountain to retrieve a set of bones. In a snowy cave, she found an old, ownerless shrine.

From then on, nightmares haunted her.

In her dreams, a face of yellow earth, like Guanyin's, appeared and vanished in the damp, misty snow. He smiled warmly, but his eyes were filled with a lingering, sinister gloom.

Wearing a wedding dress, she was led by paper figures beneath the wedding candles. The Guanyin-like face turned slightly and asked mournfully, "A Yun, why haven't you come to take me home?"

Jiang Yun opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

Suddenly, a rooster crowed. Dawn had come.

The mist around her dispersed, revealing a battered stone tablet covered in weeds: Jade Corpse Ridge.

Changbai Mountain, Jade Corpse Ridge?

*

In the first year of the Yuanzheng era of the Nan Jing dynasty, Zhan Shiyan, the young lord of Heyang, became famous at a young age. He had Guanyin's face and Guanyin's heart.

Rumor had it that he had someone in his heart. She was no noblewoman from a great clan, but a wretched corpse-driving woman from the Miao borderlands.

"A Yun, if one day I die in the wilderness and the snow covers my body, will you come for me?"

As a direct heir to the corpse-driving tradition of western Hunan, Jiang Yun was duty-bound to return the bodies of those who died far from home to their hometowns, so they could rest among their ancestors.

"No matter how far the mountains and rivers, or how the stars and seasons change, I will come for you and take you home."

And Zhan Shiyan waited for hundreds of years.

Theme: Though the body dies, the spirit lives on; the soul becomes a hero among ghosts.